The Importance of Mental Health

Mental health is a huge topic that has consistently been overlooked despite how widespread and non-discriminatory the issue of mental health disorders is. Mental illnesses affects millions of individuals with diverse backgrounds but the world has largely failed to treat mental health disorders as seriously as physical illnesses. Unfortunately, there is also a lack of treatment and information for many mental health disorders in a multitude of countries. The data set we are analyzing concerns statistics about the health facilities with mental health resources within the United States only. We are interested in seeing the different amounts of mental health resources being offered across the country as well as what sort of services these health facilities provide and how inclusive they are in treating mental health disorders across the spectrum.

Overview of US Mental Health Facilities

Out of all health facilities across the United States, 10568 of those facilities offer mental health services and resources. All of these facilities that had mental health services conducted diagnostic tests for a range of mental illnesses. Of these, 63.35% took the time and effort to do followup checkups on patients that were diagnosed from the tests – whether that was to set up a followup appointment or link those individuals to other professional mental health resources. It was also very interesting seeing what facilities took into account people with sensory impairments. Approximately 61.4% of the facilities offering mental health facilities implement the use of sign language to better treat individuals with hearing disabilities. The state with the most resources was CA which isn’t surprising as California has the largest population among the American states. In Washington state, 327 health facilities provided mental health services.

US Mental Health Summary Table

A summary table was created to parse the most relevant information related to mental health treatments from all the mental health facilities across the United States. It clearly includes and sorts the most important information from the entire data set. The table is sorted in alphabetical order of the 50 states and US territories so viewers can easily find information and statistics on the mental health facilities and resources provided by a particular state or US territory.

X State Offer_diagnostic_evaluations NO_identified_mental_health_treatment_approaches Provides_sign_language Provides_languages_other_than_English Regularly_scheduled_quality_reviews Regularly_followup_after_discharge
1 AK 82 0 38 49 66 57
2 AL 150 0 128 131 120 119
3 AR 220 1 146 166 177 157
4 AZ 293 1 256 322 237 185
5 CA 788 3 439 747 636 404
6 CO 167 1 95 146 128 81
7 CT 209 2 79 147 157 112
8 DC 35 0 17 29 21 14
9 DE 33 0 19 24 17 23
10 FL 438 6 342 376 340 316
11 GA 203 0 137 165 158 161
12 HI 38 0 19 31 24 23
13 IA 125 1 68 79 92 74
14 ID 125 0 41 64 75 82
15 IL 315 1 195 240 253 194
16 IN 246 1 209 215 187 179
17 KS 106 0 63 86 91 55
18 KY 208 0 159 152 180 117
19 LA 171 0 98 108 119 111
20 MA 285 0 140 211 213 157
21 MD 198 6 86 129 154 144
22 ME 131 5 97 86 135 105
23 MI 341 0 237 254 285 220
24 MN 226 0 135 142 168 134
25 MO 197 0 152 139 153 118
26 MS 141 0 99 90 138 122
27 MT 77 0 32 17 50 52
28 NC 212 2 109 151 214 200
29 ND 32 0 18 23 25 22
30 NE 117 9 72 100 112 100
31 NH 48 1 39 41 45 21
32 NJ 281 1 110 217 194 166
33 NM 62 0 37 55 42 40
34 NV 46 0 24 38 30 26
35 NY 774 6 400 665 629 498
36 OH 532 1 354 356 461 384
37 OK 139 0 86 104 115 121
38 OR 149 1 75 116 105 60
39 PA 520 4 264 320 340 316
40 PR 67 0 40 71 51 48
41 RI 45 0 29 40 31 31
42 SC 99 0 82 82 82 81
43 SD 47 0 36 35 42 25
44 TN 241 7 177 192 192 169
45 TX 307 0 215 271 242 209
46 UT 145 2 86 101 101 89
47 VA 222 5 151 166 143 119
48 VT 59 0 46 42 40 42
49 WA 327 0 239 286 214 132
50 WI 387 1 200 231 174 189
51 WV 111 0 57 42 80 53
52 WY 46 0 16 27 41 34
53 ZZ 5 0 1 4 1 4

Most helpful insights within this US Mental Health Summary Statistics Table:

  1. The health facilities included within the data isn’t limited to the 50 states but also includes Washington D.C. and other US Territories as separate data statistics.
  2. California, which has the highest population among the states, has the highest number of mental health facilities that provides sign language and languages other than English.
  3. In Washington state, there are 327 mental health facilities available. Of these mental health facilities, 239 facilities provided sign language and 286 provided languages other than English to better cater to a more diverse demographic.
state_vs_diagnostics_barchart(data)

Purpose: Mental health diagnostics is extremely important and useful for identifying which mental illness a patient could have. Although mental health diagnostics can also be provided in places that are not treatment facilities, it is very convenient if both the diagnosis and treatment can be provided in the same place. So knowing how many facilities provide mental health diagnostics would be very useful for people to know.

Important Observations: 1. The state with the most amount of facilities that provides mental health diagnostics is California, with 788 facilities. 2. The state with the least amount of facilities that provides mental health diagnostics is North Dakota, with 32 facilities. 3. Most of the states have below 400 facilities that provides mental health diagnostics.

summary_data <- read.csv("Data/mental_health_summary_table.csv")
sign_language_data(summary_data)

Purpose: The purpose of this chart is that we wanted to find out how many institutions per state had sign language as part of their service. There are a lot of victims of mental illness that are deaf/hard of hearing. Some of their mental health issues could have also stemmed from the fact that they are deaf/hard of hearing. So knowing how many institutions provides sign language would be very helpful for people that needs it to communicate.

Important Observations: 1. The state that provides the most institutions with sign language is California, with 439 institutions. 2. The state with the least amount of institutions that provides sign language is Wyoming at only 16 institutions. 3. Most states have between 20 - 250 institutions that provide sign language.

render_third_chart(data)
## Warning: Column `region` joining character vector and factor, coercing into
## character vector

Purpose: Knowing how many facilities actually responded to the survey is good to know because it gives a good general sense of which facilities are transparent in the information they give out and shows which facilities are underreporting what services they provide. Knowing this information can also help give potential patients a sense of trust and help them decide which state they would want to go to for treatment based on the services the facilities say they provide.

Important Observations: 1. California and New York are the states that gave the most responses, at over 800 responses. 2. The inner part of the United States seem to have the least amount of responses, while the outside of the United States seem to have more responses.